[UPDATE] HDP deputy Bilgen released on judicial probation

Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy and the party’s spokesperson Ayhan Bilgen, who was detained at Ankara Esenboğa Airport on Sunday morning, was released on judicial probation Sunday afternoon.

In a message from his Twitter account on Sunday morning, Bilgen wrote: “I have just been detained at Esenboğa [Airport] where I came to travel to İstanbul. I have been told I would be taken to Diyarbakır.”

The deputy was subsequently taken to Diyarbakır, where he was released on judicial probation by a court.

HDP deputies Adana Meral Danış Beştaş, Hüda Kaya and Altan Tan who were also detained by police recently, were subsequently released on probation.

Turkey has stepped up its crackdown on Kurdish politicians in recent months. Trustees have been appointed to dozens of municipalities in the country’s predominantly Kurdish Southeast, while Turkish courts in late 2016 arrested 11 HDP deputies, including the party’s Co-chairs Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ.